Egger Press Information
Annual press conference, July 2015
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Egger Press Information
Annual press conference, July 2015
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Egger Press Information
Annual press conference, July 2015
Dr. Thomas Leissing
Head of Finance/
Administration/Logistics
EGGER Group;
Spokesman of the group management
For queries:
FRITZ EGGER GmbH & Co.
Holzwerkstoffe
Karin Mumelter
Weiberndorf 20
6380 St. Johann in Tirol
Austria
Tel.: +43 5 0600-10691
F +43 5 0600-90691 karin.mumelter@egger.com
Walter Schiegl
Head of Production/Technology
EGGER Group
Ulrich Bühler
Head of Marketing/Sales
EGGER Group
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Egger Press Information
Annual press conference, July 2015
The EGGER Group looks back with satisfaction on its 2014/2015 financial year, which concluded at the end of April. With a consistent innovation and investment strategy across its 17 existing plants, the wood-based materials manufacturer, which now has 7,400 employees, was able to consolidate and further expand its market position. Delivering a positive result across all key figures.
In the past financial year, as in previous ones, EGGER made positive developments in a market environment shaped by challenges. The corporate group consistently pursued its mission “We make more from wood” during the 2014/2015 period and with a turnover of 2.26 billion euros generated across the Group, achieved a new record figure. Above all, the decorative wood-based materials sector and in particular the Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Central and Eastern Europe markets, contributed to the increase in turnover. Operative cash-flow also increased from the previous year. EBITDA amounted to EUR 318.4 million and was 2 % higher, compared to the same period last year. The EBITDA margin was kept stable at 14.1 %, which was the same as the previous year. The EGGER Group underlines its good credit rating once again with an improved equity ratio of 40 %.
“Our 17 manufacturing sites operated to a high capacity during the last financial year. Our plants in Western Europe have developed well during the past twelve months. Supported by stable raw materials markets, we were able to exploit positive demand developments in Great Britain,
Germany as well as Central and Southern Europe to expand our market share. Despite a difficult market environment, our French team managed to expand its volumes and profitability by means of market share increases and additional sales in Spain, Italy, Germany and Benelux.
Development is also stable in Eastern Europe, with setbacks in the Ukraine being countered by gains in almost all the other markets,” says Thomas Leissing, spokesperson for the Group
Management and responsible for Finance, Administration and Logistics.
A negative influence on regional business came from the political and currency-related crisis in
Russia, as well as difficult market environments in the building products and flooring business divisions. “Overcapacities in the laminate flooring and OSB sectors, as well as currency factors, have led to slight downturns in specific markets. Overall the positive development clearly shows that the EGGER Group is on the right course with its strategic decisions on investment and growth, as well as with product developments and innovations,” comments Thomas Leissing on future challenging developments.
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Egger Press Information
Annual press conference, July 2015
Around three quarters (75.1 %) of the turnover generated in 2014/2015 is attributable to the
Decorative Products division, which was able to increase its sales by + 4.2 % compared to the previous year.
The Retail Products division recorded a fall in turnover of - 6.5 %. The main reason for this development lies in a re-focussed approach, whereby EGGER has withdrawn from unprofitable laminate flooring markets. The recently introduced collection of EGGER Laminate flooring for
2015-2017 in this division is showing a satisfactory turnover development.
In the Building Products division (OSB and timber), total turnover fell by - 5.6 % over the previous year. The reason for this is considerable overcapacity of OSB on the market. Although a volume increase of + 5.3 % was achieved in the 2014/2015 OSB business – especially in Central and
Eastern Europe – significantly falling market prices caused a drop in turnover, however, in the
OSB sector.
All 17 plants belonging to the EGGER Group operated to a very high capacity during the past financial year. The volume of coreboards produced (chipboard, MDF and OSB) including timber, remained at the previous year's level of 7.5 million m 3 . Production increased on the coating lines to 264.9 million m 2 . The production volume of laminates during the 2014/2015 financial year was
27.8 million m 2 .
EGGER continued its stable development with investments amounting to 263.3 million euros. Of this, 60.3 million euros was spent on maintenance investments and 203 million euros for growth investments. The biggest investment during the past 2014/2015 financial year was the development of the headquarters in St. Johann in Tirol (AT) with a new administrative building, the EGGER Stammhaus and a high-bay warehouse for rawboards. In the decorative products sector for furniture and interior design, a fourth impregnation line for the manufacture of melamine resin paper was put into operation at the laminate plant in Gifhorn (DE), the sites in Gagarin (RU) and Hexham (UK) also acquired new impregnation lines. The modernisation of the adhesive glue factory was also completed in Hexham. The latest growth investment is a high gloss matt coating facility at the Brilon site (DE) for the production of the new PerfectSense product category.
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Egger Press Information
Annual press conference, July 2015
The flooring production facility, which recently went into operation in the Russian town of Gagarin, is the first step of an extensive investment project. “We see Eastern Europe and Russia in the medium term as strong growth markets for laminate flooring and would like to manufacture these products in the local area. We will be able to do that by means of the new production facility in
Gagarin,” says Thomas Leissing explaining the development investment at the latest plant belonging to the EGGER Group.
An ultra-modern MDF production facility will subsequently be installed at the Gagarin site, which is expected to start operations in the second half of 2016. The MDF capacity during the first development stage will be around 350,000 m 3 a year and 350 new jobs can be created with the expansion of the plant in the Russian region of Smolensk. The overall planned investment is around 200 million euros. Half of this will be spent on construction and infrastructure. A recently installed biomass power station will act as a producer of heat for drying wood fibres once it is completed.
The EGGER Group continues to give the highest priority to safeguarding and constantly improving the availability o f important raw materials. “After an all-time high in the 2013/2014 financial year, the wood purchasing prices settled down in 2014/2015,” according to Walter Schiegl, Head of
Production and Technology for the EGGER Group.
In order to safeguard resources, the EGGER Group is continuing to opt for long-term partnerships and its own backwards integration strategies using its own short rotation plantations, harvesting and logistics systems, forest management and wood recycling companies. Timberpak Bucharest in Romania started operations in December 2014. Here, scrap wood and renewable raw materials are collected and processed for material and thermal recovery. EGGER is thus doing pioneering work in Romania, as scrap wood has only been recycled to a limited extent until now. In the chemical sector (urea, methanol, melamine, glue and impregnation resins), the purchase prices were stable, and also partly fell during the last financial year. The EGGER Group is able to cover a large proportion of its needs for glue and impregnation resin independently from its own glue factories in Wismar (DE), Radauti (RO) and the new facility in Hexham (UK), which started operations in June 2015.
Not only turnover, but also the number of employees increased in the past financial year: in
2014/2015, an average of 7,400 employees over the year (7,200 in the previous year) from 50 nations contributed to the company's success.
In November 2014 the corporate group carried out its fourth employee satisfaction survey. In keeping with the motto “Every opinion counts”, many people used the opportunity to give their personal opinion about their work, their manager and EGGER as a company. The results show that the vast majority of employees feel a very strong bond with the EGGER family business.
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Egger Press Information
Annual press conference, July 2015
For all Western European sales markets including Great Britain and Ireland, EGGER is expecting a stable development of the overall economic situation for the current 2015/2016 financial year once again. For Russia and the countries partly affected by political tension in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, no improvement is anticipated in the short term. “We have positive expectations in the Decorative Products and Retail Products divisions. Due to the increased overcapacity on the OSB market, we anticipate ongoing pressure on prices and margins in the Building Products division,” says Thomas Leissing, who is planning further sales and profit growth across the Group for the 2015/2016 financial year.
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Turnover of 2.26 billion euro (+2.1 %)
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On average 7,400 people were employed generated across the Group. at EGGER over the year 2014/2015
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Very positive development of the
EGGER Decorative Products division
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Expansion of the Russian site in Gagarin will be the biggest investment project in the new financial year.
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Egger Press Information
Annual press conference, July 2015
New developments and the further development of products, processes and services largely focus on the benefit to the customer in the EGGER Group and are the basis for longterm profitability. The EGGER Group also shows its innovative thinking during the current financial year with a flagship project: in the German Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015. Here innovative EGGER products are used in relation to sustainability, creativity and design.
Product improvements via innovation and technological investments are a focus at EGGER. New product development follows a clearly defined, structured process across the entire corporate group. In the 2014/2015 financial year, a total of 6.1 million EUR (previous year: 5.8 million EUR) was spent on research and development. Over 19,000 hours was dedicated to research and development.
EGGER presents its advanced innovative thinking to an audience of millions at Expo Milano 2015 in the current 2015/2016 financial year. The wood-based materials manufacturer was selected by the German Pavilion Working Group (ARGE) as a partner and provided decorative wood-based materials for the furniture and interior design of the German Pavilion. In keeping with the name of this year's German Expo, “Fields of Ideas”, EGGER's innovative, creative and versatile products are displayed.
“We were chosen as a partner by the ARGE German Pavilion due to our pioneering role regarding innovative solutions, sustainability and quality. It is a great honour for us,” says Ulrich Bühler, Head of EGGER Group Marketing/Sales, about EGGER's presence at the world fair in Milan. In terms of innovation, two products, which have been fitted in the German Pavilion, stand out above all.
The flame retardant compact laminate with the Feelwood synchronised pore surface represents a totally new product. It was specially developed by EGGER for the stringent conditions regarding fire protection and design requirements. It is used in the German restaurant, the “Symphonie” restaurant and the VIP lounge.
The exhibition organisers responsible for the German Pavilion chose the EGGER Eurolight lightweight board. The innovative composite board, which was specially developed, curves through the exhibition rooms over a total length of four kilometres. This resource-saving EGGER product consists of two flame retardant surface layers that surround a cardboard honeycomb core.
EGGER skilfully combines the topics of innovation and sustainability, in addition to meeting fire protection requirements.
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Egger Press Information
Annual press conference, July 2015
To ensure its strong market position, EGGER continues to put its trust in highly refined, designoriented and functional products. The PerfectSense product category, which was successfully presented at Interzum 2015, demonstrates once again the high status placed by EGGER on product innovations. After the double-sided Feelwood synchronised pore series, the emphasis is now on gloss and matt surfaces in the form of PerfectSense. By means of a new finishing process on the new gloss-matt coating line in Brilon (DE), EGGER attains a new level of top quality.
PerfectSense Gloss is impressive due to its special reflective effect and smoothness, whilst
PerfectSense Matt feels warm and velvety and in addition features no-fingerprint technology.
EGGER consistently follows a strategy of clear distribution structures, a wide stock range, CRM, quality management systems as well as a targeted marketing approach. When it comes to developing long-term and mutual benefits, emotional aspects play a key role. On this basis, investment has been made to further develop the EGGER brand and how its products are presented. The result is the unique EGGER POS, which due to its special shape and equipment brings the products and services of the wood-based materials manufacturer to life. The EGGER
POS is the spatial expression of how advice, sales and customer contact are successfully combined. The appearance of the point-of-sale is flexible and was developed for all the EGGER
Group product areas. From laminate flooring, right through to the decorative range of products for furniture and interior design. Inside the two half shells, the EGGER POS App can be used interactively to get the most out of the service as well as gaining products and company information.
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Innovation is an important pillar of the
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With the PerfectSense product category,
EGGER Group EGGER reaches a new level of quality,
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EGGER presents innovative products in the German Pavilion at Expo regarding gloss and matt surfaces
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New, outstanding point-of-sale concept:
Milano 2015 EGGER POS.
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